Marcus Foster / Bear's Den

The Hare and Hounds, Birmingham on Wed 6th Apr 2011

You could be forgiven if you haven't heard of Marcus Foster before but if you have heard of him and chose to NOT see him live, that is a mistake which cannot be forgiven. A tiny venue with no more than 60 people in the audience, The Hare and Hounds in Kings Heath in Birmingham welcomed Marcus Foster to the stage on his 'Tumble Down EP Tour'. Now I was a little pessimistic about this venue…situated on the top floor of a pub, in the middle of Kings Heath. The acoustics were never going to be perfect but I wasn't expecting them to be but the evening was still surprisingly good.

Having been played on Zane Lowe's Radio One show and noted by Edith Bowman, Foster has begun to gain memento with his music and has amassed 11,500 followers on Twitter and so I felt a little disappointed with the turnout for his gig.

With support from Bears Den, who I urge you all to go and find on the Internet, Foster took to the stage and stunned me. He electrifies a room. His lyrics are beautifully constructed and the obvious raw emotion which he puts into each line and lyric adds an extra depth into his music. It doesn't do him any justice to compare him with any artists out at the moment because he has his own style and talents – so you will just have to take my word for it. His bluesy and soft melodic tones probably made men and women fall in love with him. He sounded so elegant, even during the rockier songs and that is what good music is all about, being a singer who can adapt his or her voice to fit different genres of music.

Foster's 'You Send Me' was a particular highlight of the evening – so much so I have listened to it at least 30 times today. His voice is so powerful, husky and effortless that it captures an audience which led to the entire room being silent during every single song. An occurrence which I haven't seen in a long long time!

On stage, Foster joked and spoke to the enthralled audience and seemed completely at ease which is nice because often once bands or artists get signed this doesn't tend to happen that often. His set included (with the help of my sister's Blackberry) 'Shadows of the City' which has recently had a music video recorded in Iceland and notoriety on Radio 1, and 'Rushes and Reeds', 'Movement', and 'I Don't Mind'.

After his set, the audience stayed completely still with encourage yells, or more precisely, casually spoke words of "More, More, More!" Foster got back onto the tiny stage to do one final song. "Seeming as this is the Tumble Down EP Tour… I had better play Tumble Down". Such an amazing song to finish on especially when he wasn't expecting to play it "Have you even seen the haunted antique morning sweep the stars out from the sky..." It was definitely love, lyrically and musically.

The only negative side of the evening was that the lighting was slightly too low to get any truly good photographs which was a shame because Marcus Foster will (I hope) be one of those names who I can now watch get 'big' and think "Yes, I was in the 50/60+ audience at the pub in Kings Heath... even if I was a little scared."

Marcus Foster

article by: Hayley Edwards

photos by: Hayley Edwards

published: 08/04/2011 14:50



FUTURE GIGS


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